Robbie Robertson, The Band and the Academy of Music

Robbie Robertson, singer/songwriter, talks with WSJ's John Jurgensen about "Live at the Academy of Music," a box set of 1971 recordings from the group The Band.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

I ... the release of this of live concerts from nineteen seventy one ... aam ... was given the hundreds of concerts you've ... played over over your career ... is there a visual image that you remember from those nine specifically can you can you put yourself on the stage so ... I can ... in coming back to this ... after all these years ... this is ... been a very expanded in elaborate version ... of something of a record that we did years ago called rock of ages ... and ... in so that record came out back then ... I mixed that record ... and ... in with a record came out ... it was received with tremendous glory the greatest reviews ... it was very successful ... and everybody that was everybody was thrilled with that ... except me ... and I mixed it and I was never ... satisfied ... I just didn't feel like I'd I'd I'd really guided all I didn't get clarity ... you weren't ... even in the center of it the way that I wanted ... you to be and I did the best ... that I could at that time ... but I did not limited circumstances studio though was finished being built right into the equipment mobile well ... all those things so when the record company ... came to me some months ago and said ... we found the tapes these tapes have been missing ... for years and years ... we found that keeps ... all of them in and there is the last forty ... years footage from a concert ... no one film footage yet ... and so and then the more we explore that was all these pictures that nobody never seen before ... it became a reservoir of material ... in the back of my mind ... this was one of the absolute high points ... of the band playing live ... so they said we did you know what you think about doing a box set for this ... and I was like yes and and ... I went back in a mixed ... the whole record in many things have never been heard before ... from it ... I was bopping are now one of the great ... music mixtures of ropes Aaron ... and I got it the way that I really wanted ... from ... from nineteen seventy one misses along I wish ... the ... wish lists the diet ... so we we got to ... really makes the whole thing ... and then the record company asked my son Sebastian ... if he would mix ... that New Year's Eve show from beginning to and the exact way that was played ... in Bob Dylan showed up at the end of that after ... New years Eve ... we their encore with Bob ... and mixing just the way and so ... he ... was clear that I'm trying to make it sound ... is big and beautiful as I can ... and with Sebastian ... he said I want this to be ... sole Roth is so real ... and that you are in it you know and I wanted to sound like ... the greatest bootleg record you've ever ... been in I've never ... I've never heard of a record before they had these two impressions ... and although ... do the with ... which to bash and it is one whole show ... and this was a concert did did we did over four nights ... and I'm choosing my choices over ... the course of the four nights ... so it's different but it did but it's ... the same in some some things crossover it is the same ... in to have these two completely different impressions of it ... is fantastic ... and in some cases ... the Roth ... who Rio down and down and dirty version of it ... is people are gravitating towards ... more than the one that I did when it was clear My but they're full ... a dream come true for me ... so for hearing of the bands ... at its peak at its zenith in nineteen seventy one on his recordings where we then seeing and hearing in the last class was was his ... top five years later what's the difference between them the snapshots of the band ... sometimes ... you know it it's a it's a different period of ... connection in music ... during this the the the Academy of music concerts ... we were in a in a place ... of where we were really playing to one another guys we're in a huddle ... we were playing for one another and to one another ... in the audience could witness this ... and then for this celebration ... I got out and to start to come into for insurance for a lot of the songs ... so we could even raise the bar to a different place in different flavors and some of these things ... to share with the audience ... then in the last was what we were doing than ... we had to be so honored gain ... that we could think about putting to one another on that ... Israel to play with all these different versions two ... and was taken up ... on everything ... just a memory test alone the musical member ... they don't have no change fees to have no ... sheet music you know most was that read music so wooden of health anyway ... but ... it was a ... different experience completely ... musically the same people ... trying to get to you now ... hit a high note so to speak but ... it will Weisenthal completely different to me ... and we were bringing something to a conclusion ... and this the lie that the Academy of music ... is really launching cells ... Robbie Robertson thanks for joining us that the